Interactive toys have become increasingly popular in recent times. Children enjoy playing with toys that communicate or respond to different selections or prompts from the player. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,663,393 (Ghaly) U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,336 (Lebensfeld et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,648,719 (Chan) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,585,556 (Smirnov) all disclose toys, dolls or action figures who act or respond based on some activation by the user, or by the surrounding events.
Additionally, online gaming has seen an explosion in popularity. Typical online gaming scenarios, sometimes referred to as Massively Multi-player On-Line(MMO) games are played on networks, such as the Internet with many people, are provided by servers on the network to user computers. A user may interact with the MMO, also referred to as a “virtual world”, by interacting with the user's computer.
Entertainment systems involving toys and online virtual worlds are known in the art. These systems typically integrate virtual representations of toys into the virtual world allowing a user to visualize the toy and interact with the toy online. These systems bring certain advantages in that they allow the user to identify the toy with actions online. The interaction with the virtual world may increase the attachment of the user to the toy and to the manufacturer making other toys capable of virtual world interaction. These systems are somewhat limited in their interactive functionality.
It would be advantageous for the user of an interactive toy to take part in a virtual world where interactions with the toy could alter the users experience in the virtual world. Additionally, it would be advantageous for interactions within the virtual world to effect the interactive toy. Therefore, a need exists for a system, methods, and apparatus for interactive play.